FAQs

What Are Out-of-Market NFL Games?

Out-of-market means games that aren’t available for broadcast in the area you’re physically located in and streaming from. When you watch the NFL online, your IP address determines your location.

These out-of-market games are ‘blacked out’ because the NFL has sold their broadcast rights to local TV services, like FOX or CBS, in US states outside the one you’re located in.

As a result, streaming services are forced to black out these particular games, depending on your IP address location. This is why you often can’t live stream your local team’s game.

Can I Watch Out-of-Market NFL Games without DirecTV?

DirecTV no longer has the rights to NFL Sunday Ticket after the service moved to YouTube TV at the start of the 2023 regular season.

The number of NFL games you can watch on DirecTV is now extremely limited. You can only watch games aired on local network affiliates, ESPN, and the NFL Network.

But, as we explained in this guide, the most effective way to stream all out-of-market NFL games on one single platform is to sign up to NFL Game Pass on DAZN and, using a VPN, get a non-US IP address.

Yes, it’s completely legal to use a VPN to bypass the NFL’s regional broadcast restrictions.

However, every streaming service will try to detect and block VPN, since it interferes with the streaming rights the NFL has agreed with TV broadcasters.

Some streaming services state in their Terms of Service that they may terminate users caught streaming with a VPN. However, we’ve never experience this, despite using VPNs with streaming sites since 2016.